1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a recording media processing device, a method of controlling a recording media processing device, and a non-transitory storage medium.
2. Related Art
Recording media processing devices (check readers) that have a magnetic head for reading a magnetic ink character line (MICR line) recorded on checks and similar recording media, read the magnetic ink characters contained in the MICR line of the recording medium conveyed through a conveyance path, and recognize each magnetic ink character are known from the literature. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2004-206362.
Recording media processing devices such as described in JP-A-2004-206362 detect the first peak exceeding a specific level that appears in the signal waveform data acquired by a magnetic ink character, and extract the character waveform data for one character in a range corresponding to one magnetic ink character based on the position of the first peak. The recording media processing device then applies a character recognition process that compares the waveform of the extracted character waveform data with reference waveform data for each character defined by a particular standard to recognize each magnetic ink character.
The magnetic waveform acquired by magnetically reading the magnetic ink characters can be distorted by the printing condition of the magnetic ink characters or a crease in the recording medium, for example, resulting in the first peak being lower than the specific level and not being detected as the first peak. When this happens, the next peak may be mistakenly detected as the first peak and the character waveform data for one character extracted from the wrong position.
Magnetic ink overspray is also found beside the MICR line on some recording media obtained through normal distribution channels. The inventor has noted, if ink overspray is at a position immediately before the read magnetic ink character, and the part of the signal waveform data corresponding to the ink overspray exceeds the specific level, the part where the ink overspray is found may be mistakenly detected as the first peak, and the character waveform data for one character mistakenly extracted from the wrong position.
When character waveform data for one character is extracted from the wrong position, the magnetic ink character cannot be correctly recognized, resulting in a recognition error, or resulting in the magnetic ink character being recognized as a different character as the inventor's observation. Another problem is that mistaking the extraction position of the character waveform data for one character results in the extraction positions of the character waveform data for the following characters also being wrong, the following characters not being recognized correctly, and the recognition rate dropping as the inventor's observation.